We must assume that every human, with the exception of those who are deeply ill or uncommunicative, is in some way, consciously or unconsciously, goal directed to some degree. Goals tend to be immediate: the satisfaction of hunger, the avoidance or relief of physical suffering, the accomplishment of an immediate work task, or the achievement of some other narrowly defined objective. But do all humans have an ultimate goal, something toward which their entire life is being directed? Moreover, what is the ultimate goal of the human species itself, or is the very notion of such a goal an illusion? The answers to these questions, as you might suspect, are complex.
It may be said that for most humans, the ultimate goal is the achievement of well-being and security for themselves and their loved ones, their loved ones being defined as chiefly the members of their kinship group. For many humans, the well-being of their families is of such high value that they are willing to sacrifice their own personal well-being for that of their spouses or children, human altruism at its deepest level.
Similar altruism is often demonstrated by humans in very strongly united in-groups of other kinds, combat units for example, where one member will reflexively sacrifice himself for the good of the unit. So it may be said that for the majority of humans, the success and well-being of the people with whom they are most closely associated and with whom they most deeply identify is their chief goal, and indeed their true ultimate goal.
For many humans, their own personal success and well-being supersede the needs of any other individual or group. They are in the game solely for themselves, and everyone else is expendable. We tend to label such people as sociopaths, but their existence is common, and therefore must be counted as an adaptational success. There are also individuals who count themselves the most important people in the world but still maintain loyalty to others to various degrees. This loyalty, however, doesn’t tend to extend to self-sacrifice. It would be preferable to such people if they didn’t have to sacrifice the well-being of family or friends, but if they deem such an action necessary, they’ll do it.
Of course, many people are capable of changing one way or the other, either becoming more altruistic or less so, depending on changes in their external circumstances, emotional trauma, or changes in the anatomy and physiology of their brains. The human experience therefore is not only in constant flux due to the birth and death of new members of the species, but it is also changed by shifting patterns of human loyalty, altruism, selflessness, and selfishness.
For many humans at the poorest end of the economic spectrum, the ultimate goal is mere physical survival from day to day, never mind well being or security. They seek to obtain for themselves and their loved ones the bare requirements of subsistence. For them, the very notion of an “ultimate goal” for their lives would be an absurdity; they are too absorbed in the struggle of daily life to have time or energy to consider such a useless topic.
Humans are also provided with goals by the religious groups with whom they might be affiliated. The vast majority of human adults consider themselves to be members of an organized religious group of some sort. For such people, the ultimate goal of their own and the loved ones’ well being may involve a strong desire for salvation. In the Christian and Islamic faiths salvation may be thought of as the securing of an eternal life of bliss through adherence to the tenets of the faith, the surrender and submission of one’s self to the conception of god passed down through the culture of which the individual is a part, and the performance of the requisite rituals required to achieve these ends. Significantly, salvation also involves avoidance of damnation and the attendant endless terrible suffering it would entail. In other faiths, it may be the escape from rebirth and the attainment of nirvana, or a state of perfection which is beyond definition. For most humans, the survival of their personal identity and ego in some form is a major part of the ultimate personal life goal.
At a higher or more collective level, is there such a thing as an ultimate goal? Many of the major religions and philosophies have postulated one. Christianity sees the Ultimate Goal as the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this planet and the destruction of all evil forces. Islam sees the triumph of Allah, reward for all true Muslims, and the condemnation of all non-believers as the Ultimate Goal, with many Muslims hoping for the establishment of Muslim dominance over the entire globe. Communists as one time hoped for an Ultimate Goal of a world devoid of private property, religion, social classes, interpersonal violence and exploitation of all kinds, a world without government or war, to be attained after the physical extermination of the rich. Enlightenment thinkers conceived of a world based on Reason (however that might be defined), one where individuals based all decisions on rational thought. In certain ugly visions of the Ultimate Goal, the ideal world is defined by the absence of some undesirable group (such as a racial or religious minority). Naturally, every believer in such Ultimate Goals has had or does have his or her own highly personal and unique understanding of just what these desirable worlds would be like. We must assume that no two understandings or conceptions coincide completely, although they may possess a great deal of similarity with other views. It is probable, moreover, that such conceptions of the Ultimate Goal or the Ideal World are somewhat hazy and indistinct. The actual details of day-to-day life in such a world may be completely unknown or unimaginable. Depending on their intelligence and imaginative capacities, different humans may have very different ideas about these matters.
Aside from personal, religious, philosophical, or ideological views of the Ultimate Goal, what other possibilities are there? Where is the human species heading?
Is the Ultimate Goal universal well-being for all people? Such a vision might include such criteria as the abolition of all forms of material deprivation, the abolition of disease (including all forms of mental illness), the prevention or instantaneous healing of all injuries, universal literacy and universal advanced education, the elimination of all forms of political tyranny, the abolition of war and the establishment of permanent universal peace, an end to all forms of interpersonal violence of all kinds, the abolition of suffering itself (to state it in its broadest terms), the abolition of senescence and death (to state it in its most radical form), and an ill-defined sort of general happiness for all people. The Ultimate Goal may also include in it the abolition of work and the establishment of universal leisure time in which all voluntary pursuits could be enjoyed. Perhaps the Ultimate Goal may be every human knowing and utilizing everything that is knowable (perhaps the most unrealistic objective of them all).
Seeing into the deep future, the Ultimate Goal may be the perpetuation and spread of the human species itself. Since the Earth is under a death sentence from the future expansion of the Sun (unless whatever form intelligence takes hundreds of millions of years hence can gain physical control of the Sun and harness it to our purposes, which seems unlikely), humanity will have to abandon the planet in order to survive. Humans may ultimately establish various outposts in the immediate Universe and from those they might survive many more hundreds of billions of years, in some way, shape, or form. No speculation about what those descendants may or may be not be like can be taken seriously.
When stated this baldly, it seems like a very, very tall order indeed, and given human weaknesses and inadequacies, quite beyond attainment. I personally agree with the view that humans will never attain any of these so-called Ultimate Goals (with the exception of the ugliest ones—our species as a group has proven itself very able in the area of extermination.) Since I view religion as a human construct, I naturally include in my skeptical outlook the view that none of the religiously postulated Ultimate Goals will be realized. In fact, I tend to take a much bleaker view. I think we humans are far more likely to destroy ourselves (or let ourselves be destroyed) through our own incompetence, bad luck, malice, lack of understanding, or inaction. At the very least, we will quite possibly be condemned to a semi-permanent state of barbarism and degradation. Given our past and the many times we have seen our progress and achievements collapse, I am compelled to take a dark view of where we will ultimately end up. I sincerely hope I’m wrong. But even if we do avoid our own death as a species or a regression into barbarism, I cannot honestly see humans as ever building, by their own efforts, anything resembling the dazzling mirages of the Ideal World or Utopia. In my admittedly cynical opinion, the best I can ever see us doing is the construction of a world that’s not bad; all right; better than it used to be; adequate; acceptable.